Nobody Told Us What The Year Looks Like

It has happened four times now.

Something arrives, or somebody mentions something, and it turns out that a stage of this year has already started and that everybody else appears to have known about it for weeks.

And then there is the scramble. Two days of it. Working out what it means, what has to happen, whether something has been missed, and by the time your household has understood the thing properly it is nearly over and the next one has begun somewhere out of sight.

Four times since September. The whole term has been reactive.

And here is what that does to a family, which is worse than the practical inconvenience: it produces a permanent low sensation of being behind. Not of being busy. Of being late, structurally, as a household, in a way that other families apparently are not.

Here is what I want to say before anything else. Nobody told you. That is the whole explanation and it is worth stating flatly.

The information exists and it circulates, and it circulates among people who have done this before, and your family is not in that circulation yet. That is all this is. It is not disorganization and it is not a failure of attention.

A pillar of a cloud to lead the way

There is a sentence in Exodus about a people who had no idea what was coming next, ever, at any point.

And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night. (Exodus 13:21, King James Version)

Think about what that arrangement actually is.

They did not have a route. Nobody handed them a map at the start with the stages marked on it. What they had was something in front of them that moved, and their entire method was: watch it, and go when it goes.

That is not a lesser arrangement than having a map. It is a different one, and it is the one God chose for a whole nation walking into something none of them had done.

You are being led rather than left behind, and a family that finds out on the day has never once been a family that is late. Exodus 13:21 has a whole nation with no route and something in front of them instead, and the Holy Spirit is the one in a kitchen after the fourth scramble of the term.

And notice the second half: by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light.

The same leading, in a different form, for the part of the journey where nobody can see anything. The arrangement does not stop when the visibility does. It changes shape.

You have something in front of this household in both halves of the day, and a stretch where nothing can be seen has never once been a stretch where nothing is leading. The written word covers the dark half explicitly and by name, and the Spirit of God is the one who goes in front of a family that cannot see the next stage.

Getting into the circulation

Now the practical half, and it is one move and it is repeatable.

The year is not written down anywhere, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. There is no schedule that a family can be handed at the start.

But the information is in people, and people can be asked, and one question changes the position of a household from reacting to ready.

You are able to move from behind to alongside with one question, and information that lives in people has never once been unavailable to a family that asks somebody. The Holy Spirit is the one who moves a household into the flow of what is known, and Exodus 13:21 puts the leading in something visible that a whole people could watch.

And here is the specific question, because how it is asked determines what comes back. Not: is there anything we should know about. That produces nothing, because the person answering does not know what you do not know.

Ask: what happens next. Then: and after that.

Those two questions produce a sequence, and a sequence is exactly what your household has been missing, and it can be got from any person who has been through it, in about four minutes, standing up.

You are four minutes away from a sequence, and a year that nobody wrote down has never once been a year that nobody could describe. Exodus 13:21 gives a whole people something they could watch instead of a route on paper, and the Holy Spirit is the one who puts the right person in front of a household.

And then the second half, which is what turns it from a conversation into a change: write it down where everybody in that house can see it. Not in a phone. On a wall, on a board, on a piece of paper on the fridge.

Because a scramble is not really caused by not knowing. It is caused by one person knowing and the rest of the household finding out on the day, which is the same experience in miniature, happening inside your own kitchen. Finding out late is not a verdict on a family.

You are able to end the scramble inside your own house first, and information held in one head has never once been the same as information a household has. Exodus 13:21 puts the leading where every single person in the company could see it, and the Spirit of God is the one who makes a thing visible to a whole family at once.

Ask what happens next, then write it up

So here is the thing to do, and it is one conversation and one wall.

Ask one person who has been through this what happens next. And write the answer down where the whole household can see it.

Anybody who has done it. The question is four words and it does not require a relationship: what happens next, and after that.

You are able to get a sequence out of anybody who has walked it, and four words asked standing up have never once been an imposition on anybody. The Holy Spirit is the one standing beside somebody asking a four word question, and it is written in Exodus 13:21 that the Lord went before them to lead them the way.

Then the wall. This part is not optional and it is where the household actually changes.

Whatever comes back, put it up. Rough is fine. Three items with approximate months on them is enough. It does not have to be right and it does not have to be complete.

Here is what it does. From that afternoon, everybody in that house can see the same thing at the same time, which means nobody is finding anything out on the day from anybody else, which means the next stage arrives at four people simultaneously instead of at one.

That single change removes about eighty per cent of what has been making this year feel frantic, and it costs a piece of paper.

You are able to give a whole household the same view of the same year, and a rough list on a wall has never once needed to be complete to end a scramble. Scripture puts the pillar where the entire company could see it rather than telling one man the route, and the same Spirit who arranged it that way is in your kitchen when the paper goes up.